Umar (579-3 November 644) was the second Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate from 634 to 644, succeeding Abu Bakr and preceding Uthman. Originally an enemy of Islam, Umar embraced Muhammad's teachings and rose to become a leader of the Muslims. During his reign, Muslims conquered almost all of the Sassanid Empire and others, and his empire stretched from Libya and Egypt in North Africa to Turkey in the north, Yemen and Ethiopia in the south, the Caucasus and the Oxus River in the north, and the Indus River to the west. Umar also welcomed the Jews back to Jerusalem, where he renovated the Temple of Jupiter to become a Muslim holy site: the Dome of the Rock. He was assassinated in 644 by Piruz Nahavandi, a Persian slave who sought revenge for the conquest of the Sassanids.
Biography[]
A portrait of Umar
Umar was born in 579 in Mecca to the Banu Adi clan in a middle-class family, although his father Khattab ibn Nufayl worked him to exhaustion and beat him if he refused to work. He learned to read and write in his youth, and he also learned martial arts, horse riding, and wrestling. Umar was originally a merchant who made many visits to Rome and Persia, and was fond of drinking after his merchant career failed. When Muhammad began to preach Islam in 610, Umar opposed him and threatened to kill him. His death threats forced the Muslims to flee to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and he headed to Abyssinia to assassinate Muhammad and save the Quraysh from doom. When he saw his brother-in-law reciting the Quran, he quarreled with him, and when his sister arrived to break them up, Umar slapped her so hard that she fell to the ground and bled. Feeling regret, he asked his sister to show him the scriptures that she read. She made him wash himself first, and when he read the Quran, he decided to convert to Islam. He met Muhammad, and he became a companion of his.
In 624, Umar took part in the Battle of Badr, the first battle between Muhammad's Muslims and the Quraysh pagans of Mecca, and in 627 he fought in the Battle of the Trench and the Battle of Banu Qurayza. In 630, he took part in the "Battle of Tabouk", in which 30,000 Muslim troops made an expedition north with the intent of fighting the Byzantine Empire, but they simply scouted the area. The "battle" was not a fight, but instead, many Arab tribes decided to convert to Islam after seeing the might of the Muslim army. In 632, when Muhammad died, he refused to acknowledge that he died, saying that he was simply gone for forty days to see God (Allah). However, Abu Bakr quoted the Quran, saying that "messengers (the like of whom) had passed away before him".
While Abu Bakr was the first Caliph of the new Rashidun Caliphate, the state built out of Muhammad's conquests, Umar was his secretary. In 634, he succeeded Abu Bakr as Caliph upon his death. He divided the Rashidun Caliphate into the Province of Mecca, Province of Medina, Province of Basra, Province of Kufa, Province of Jazira, Province of Syria, Province of Iliya, Province of Ramlah, Province of Upper Egypt, Province of Lower Egypt, Province of Khorasan, Province of Azerbaijan, and Province of Fars. He also built canals in Basra for drinking water and irrigation, and in 637 he visited Jerusalem. He permitted seventy Jewish households to return to Jerusalem, and one Jew, Kaab, advised him to build a place of worship on the Temple Mount. Umar ordered the Nabateans, to clean the Temple of Jupiter of the rubbish left on it, and after three showers of heavy rain, the rock was cleansed. Umar named it "The Dome of the Rock", and it became one of the holiest sites of Islam, while to Jews it was the holy "Temple Mount".
Umar made a mistake in dismissing General Khalid ibn Walid in 638 because he wanted the people to believe that Islam's victories came from Allah and not a general, and from 638 to 639, the military conquests from the Byzantines were partially terminated. Famine and plague struck during that time, making matters worse. However, by the end of his reign he annexed the Levant, Egypt, Libya, eastern Turkey, and almost the whole of the Sassanid Empire.
Death[]
In 644, Umar was encountered by slave Piruz Nahavandi, who complained about the high taxes. Umar ordered him to make him a windmill, and Piruz said that he would make a windmill so verily that the whole world would remember it. While Umar led morning prayers, Piruz stabbed him six times, mortally wounding him. He slashed several people while escaping, killing 9 out of 12 of those he wounded. Piruz then slashed himself, committing suicide. Uthman succeeded Umar as caliph.